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Mendes Wood DM São Paulo
March 30 - May 13, 2023

Alvaro Barrington paints vivid abstractions that consider the cultural production of subjects ranging from Hibiscus flowers to the life of Marcus Garvey. Raised between Brooklyn and the Caribbean, Barrington utilizes cross-disciplinary materials and crafts that often reference his childhood, including the sewing of his Grenadian aunts. In his early work Barrington experimented with “copying” artists like Willem de Kooning, Henry Taylor, and Howard Hodgkin. The influence of such artists, whose work Barrington highlighted in a 2019 show he curated entitled Artists I Steal From  at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac in London, can be felt in the bold, gestural quality of his compositions.

His recent solo exhibitions include La Vie en Rose, Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria; SPIDER THE PIG, PIG THE SPIDER, South London Gallery, London, UK (2021); Wave Your Flags II, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2021); Drug Culture: Vol ii. Trust your local drug dealer, Emalin, London (2021); Garvey 1: BIRTH -The Quiet Storm, Nicola Vassell, New York (2021); You don’t do it for the man, men never notice, You just do it for yourself, you’re the fucking coldest, Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Paris (2021); Garvey 2–They eyes were watching God, Corvi-Mora, London (2020); Garvey: Sex Love Nurturing Famalay, Sadie Coles, London (2019); A Taste of Chocolate, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London (2018); and MoMA PS1, New York (2017).